1 Insect Feeding Guilds Insect Guild Categories
Economically important Insect Orders
z Insect Feeding Guilds z Characteristics and examples of economically important insects
Teaching Objective: z Sight recognition of insect orders z Laboratory exercise to follow
Insect Feeding Guilds
z What is a feeding guild?
A guild describes where an insect must go to find, eat, and process food. A guild sets the stage for understanding ecological relationships. Individual orders can have insects in one or many feeding guilds.
Insect Guild Categories
z Pest z Bugs that bother us z Beneficial z Bugs that help us
1 Insect Pest Guilds
z Insects that discolor or disfigure leaves (spider mite, plant bug). z Producers of liquid excrement (honeydew), or wax (aphid, scales) z Gall makers - Live in specialized habitats (tumors) produced by plants. z Defoliators – Remove leaf tissue z Leaf miners – Live between the upper and lower surface of plants. z Stem and trunk borers. –Live inside plant stems and trunks. z Root feeders –feed in the soil on plant roots. z Disease vectors– Transmit disease (Mosquitoes Malaria, elm bark beetles- Dutch Elm Disease)
Beneficial Insect Guilds
z Insects that eat pests
z Parasites- Insects complete their life inside a pests ( parasitic wasp)
z Predators – Insects that consume other insects (lady beetles)
z Pollinators – Insects that move pollen between plants (wasps, bees and flies) z Decomposers - Insects that feed on dead and decaying plant and animal matter. (Carpenter Ants, Termites, Bark lice, Collembolla, flies).
Insect Phylogeny
Ametabolous Apterygota Hemimetabolous Exopterygota z Paleoptera (ancient winged) z Neoptera (newer winged) z Orthopteroid orders -Chewers • Hemipteroid orders –Mostly suckers Holometabolous Endopterygota
2 Ametabolous apterygota Collembola (Springtails)
collophore furcula
Collembola Image
Collembola Furcula
3 Collembola Head
Retracted chewing mouth parts
Thysanura (Silverfish/Firebrats)
Hemimetabolous Exopterygota Paleoptera (old winged)
Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)
Adult Naiads (Aquatic juveniles)
4 Hemimetabolous Exopterygota Paleoptera (old winged) Ephemeroptera (Mayflies)
Adult
Odonata
Anisoptera (dragonflies) Zygoptera (damselflies)
Odonata
Anisoptera (dragonflies) Zygoptera (damselflies)
5 Hemimetabolous Exopterygota Neoptera (new wing)
Aquatic ancestral group z Plecoptera (stone flies)* z Embioptera (web spinners)
*= commonly encountered or problematic in ornamental systems.
Plecoptera (stoneflies)
Adult Naiad
Plecoptera (stoneflies)
Adult Naiad
6 Hemimetabolous Exopterygota Neoptera (new wing)
Orthopteroid Orders • Dermaptera* (earwigs) • Grylloblatodea (rock crawlers) • Phasmotodea* (walking sticks) • Orthoptera* (grasshoppers, crickets and katydids) Dictyopterous (produce eggs in cases, like mantids and cockroaches) z • Mantodea* (Mantids) z • Blattodea* (Cockroaches) z • Isoptera* (Termites)
*= commonly encountered or problematic in ornamental systems.
Dermaptera (Earwigs)
Enlarged cerci
Phasmatodea (Walking Sticks)
female
male antennae
Forelegs
7 Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids, crickets, mole crickets)
Orthopteroid Orders Dictyopterous (produce eggs in cases),
• Mantodea* (Mantids) • Blattodea* (Cockroaches) • Isoptera* (Termites)
Blattodea (Cockroaches)
German cockroach life stages
8 Blattodea (Cockroaches) common adults
Blattodea (Cockroaches) common egg cases
Mantodea (Praying Mantids)
9 Isoptera (Termites)
soldier worker
Mud tubes
Winged reproductives
10